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By halfcut Tue Oct 05, 2021 5:35 pm
Hi All,

So I've been setting up a sequence which I'm hoping will hold about 20 songs, each track with about 6 full length backing tracks (4mins long) (guitars, Synths etc etc). I have a 64 GB SD card which is easily enough, but I keep running into the internal drive running out of memory.

I purged and lost all my samples (I have backups on the SD drive).

I thought, however, I would be running the entire set from the SD card anyway so it wouldn't matter - I thought maybe when I was first loading in samples it was loading them onto the internal drive, until I then saved the set and it would all then be stored and streamed from the SD card?

Am I wrong in this instance cos if so, I'm about 5 tracks in and will likely have to split the set across multiple projects, which is obviously not great.

Thanks in advance.

Halfcut :-)
By halfcut Tue Oct 05, 2021 7:01 pm
Ok, so having now researched further, basically the maximum project size you can have is up to the internal storage amount of 4GB, depending on the system files being used.

This is essentially the same size as the Roland SPDX drum machine, which is what we've just abandoned to use this instead.

Wo really all the debate about what SD card is best for this machine, apart from speed of loading/saving a project for transfer for offline storage is basically irrelevant as it all comes down to streaming from the internal drive anyway.

I wish I was wrong, but I think my solution now is to go back to basics of putting tracks in Mono and splitting up empty sections of blank audio just to preserver some internal storage.

If anyone can suggest something otherwise, would be great - thank you! ;-)
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By MPC-Tutor Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:10 pm
Storage has no bearing on project size, the maximum project size is limited by the amount of system ram, which is approximately 1GB. Your project folder can contain more than 1GB as it will retain all the previously deleted samples you might have used in your project at some point. Here's more info on MPC ram

https://www.mpc-tutor.com/how-much-memo ... ive-mpc-x/
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By MPC-Tutor Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:23 pm
halfcut wrote:It's sad when you realise the MPC is not capable of loading a Project that has 10 , 4 minute songs, each with 3 tracks of Stereo Audio - I mean, seriously!


It's a standalone groovebox with relatively limited ram, if you need 120 minutes of stereo audio consider running the MPC in controller mode or use a different daw in a computer. Or wait until they implement disk streaming. Or split your project into smaller 1 or 2 song projects, and look at ways you can bridge the silence while you load the next project
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By MPC-Tutor Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:24 pm
halfcut wrote:Thanks for this - but that does mean though that if a project is larger than the system Ram, it won't allow you to load more samples into that project, right?


Yep. But this is the same with any music application, even on a computer you can only load content while you have available ram to hold it
By halfcut Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:26 pm
I guess I was hoping the MPC would be the equivalent of Ableton, a total laptop free solution allowing you to have 4 or 5 audio tracks and then some midi in the same sequence, each sequence being one song, and then that sequence being the entire Live Set, which could be up to 90 minutes in length...and all this talk of SSD drives and Flash SD cards up to 256GB etc is just for external storage. I've just loaded one song into the MPC, it has 6 stereo audio tracks and it 104 bars long, not huge (3.30) and the internal memory is at 39% - i can just about squeeze 2 more tracks in this sequence/project, if I'm lucky.
By halfcut Tue Oct 05, 2021 10:01 pm
Thanks for the suggestions MPC tutor - I think you're right, it's not the end of the world, potentially having 2-3 song projects could work and we just find ways to bridge the transitions etc. I appreciate perhaps the use case for the MPC didn't have this fully in mind, as was more for launching clips etc. Disk Streaming would be a game changer, tbh, I wasn't at all interested in the MPC one until they allowed the option of 32 I/O audio which can't have been an easy software upgrade.

Has anyone devised a slick way of switching between projects as you load from the SD card, I assume there's no midi mapping options for toggling through projects or anything?

Thanks in advance ;-)
By Patientrichard Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:20 pm
There's going to be dead air when you switch between your projects.

Some people use the roland sp 404 to add transitions, I use the octatrack mk2, and others have other methods.

Unfortunately the answer is to use another piece of gear, put all your songs into one project and play them via sequences, or take a look at the Force which now has disc streaming.
By 40Beatz Wed Oct 20, 2021 6:52 pm
Short Answer....Get Traktor or Similar to do a Live Set. Then You can Switch between Projects(songs) on the Fly.
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By Ultros Sun Oct 31, 2021 3:23 pm
Turntables... (non sarcasm) the idea of djing a set on a beat machine seems counter productive and setting yourself up for public embarassment.

The mpc goes between my turntables and the speakers as a sampler / fx processor / capture device.

The device is limited to 2gb of ram which is actually around 1.85 of useful memory for the sample pool.

It's a wonderful device and it does lots of great things, but live sets isnt one of those things.. even kanye walks his ass over to the mpc and loads a brand new project between songs during a performance.

The mpc lacks some stuff i require for performance situations. There's no hands on coarse or fine tune for bpm adjustment in any intuitive way, there's no high resolution jog wheels. The mpc also doesnt jog well at all, it actually skips "frames" rather than moving the read buffer...

I've been djing since i was about 16 (22years), not that that makes my opinion any more valid, but midi gear is definitely not my first choice for media playback to a live audience.

If you're hell bent on using the mpc, consider a second unit and a mixer so you can treat them as turntables, left side right side. Still, i don't feel as though thats a viable solution.. $2000 in mpc units with a $1000 mixer in the middle? with all that investment you could have had any combo of the items mentioned below.

Devices i highly suggest:

Basically any of the denon shit, but especially the denon prime go. (it matches the mpc, google it. its fkn sick..)

Numark mixdeck express (i have one of these excellent budget platform with all the bells and whistles anyone could need excellent response)

Basically any form of traditional dedicated hardware dj platform.. cd decks, vinyl or usb cards containing high resolution renders.


Things i dont suggest:

Serato... Tractor, djuiced, djay, mixxx or any other virtual solution, it will fail and when it does you're gonna look like a jerk..


Also here is something the mpc cant do.. sorry about the sound it was late at night and i just grabbed a quick capture with my cell..

Doubles

</long winded rant>